The Blondie song that made Chris Stein “nervous”
The formula of Blondie‘s success largely concerns Debbie Harry’s and Chris Stein’s masterful collaboration. They both played equally vital roles in creating the band’s biggest hits, and it was a daunting moment for Stein when he stepped out alone for the first time.
The musical partnership between the duo began in 1973 when Stein saw Harry perform with The Stilletos and later joined the group. The following year, the duo exited the band and formed a new outfit that eventually became Blondie. Still, it took several years of hard work while honing their sound before they achieved a modicum of success.
When Blondie finally established themselves, they were an unstoppable force by the time their third album, Parallel Lines, was released in 1978. At this stage, the pairing had only worked together for half a decade but knew each other fluently from a musical perspective, allowing Blondie to push their boundaries. Typically, Harry would focus on the lyrics while Stein would deal with the arrangement.
Parallel Lines includes the single ‘Sunday Girl’, which marked the first Blondie composition that Stein wholly created. However, despite not being a collaborative effort, it would never have existed without Harry, who was at the forefront of Stein’s mind throughout the songwriting process.
The song was written to make Harry cheerful after her cat, named Sunday Man, had run away. Although it’s suggested to have been a love song, Stein denied this claim during an interview with the Birmingham Mail, stating, “No, it really was about the cat. Of course everything is multi-layered but it genuinely was about the cat initially.”
Meanwhile, during another conversation with Jools Holland for the BBC, Stein revealed he was fearful about having a Blondie song credited entirely to him, noting, “I wrote that one all by myself, but when it was about to come out I was so nervous about having my own song, I asked [Debbie Harry] to put her name on it. … We left [the credit] to me in the long run.”
From a musical perspective, the duo later named ‘Sunday Girl’ their “most acrobatic song” during a conversation with Vulture. “It sounds sweet and even, but total vocal gymnastics went into that,” Stein commented.
Harry then used ‘Sunday Girl’ as an example of their partnership and how Stein understands her voice more than anybody else, stating: “I’d agree with that. One of the things we discovered together is that Chris, when he’s writing, thinks in sort of a sweeter, higher voice than I naturally have. So I somehow have to make it work. I think it’s very beautiful. It’s odd how it works out between us, and how we understand each other musically.”
Although ‘Sunday Girl’ is solely credited to Stein as a songwriter, Harry still played an integral part in its creation. Not only did the saddening story of her missing cat serve as the track’s initial inspiration, but her sparkling vocal performance brought Stein’s vision to life.
